The Cumbo Family: Tracing one of the First African descended families in America

About the Authors. Luke Alexander and Andre Kearns are Cumbo descendants who have researched their family roots extensively.  A DNA connection brought them and their Cumbo branches together.  In this blog they share what they have uncovered on the origins of their shared ancestor Emanuel Cumbo, the first documented Cumbo in America.

A land grant. On April 18, 1667, a Virginia land patent grants Emanuel Cumbo, “Negro,” 50 acres in James City County.  He obtains land formerly granted to William Davis.  

This remarkable document makes Emanuel one of the few African-descended landowners in 17^th century Virginia.  It also raises important questions.  How did he end up with his land? Where was he born?  Who were his parents?

Answering these questions reveals an inspiring story of an African man and woman’s resilience and agency over bondage to create a free life for their Virginia-born son Emanuel Cumbo and future generations.

Our research approach. To answer these questions, first we created a Cumbo US South Y-DNA project to trace our Cumbo family origins.  Project results to date provide important clues to our Cumbo origins.  We extensively researched early Virginia records, particularly land and patent records from 1619 to 1667.  Finally we used a Virginia map from 1652 to identify the locations cited in the patents.  These sources surfaced dots we connected to reveal our Cumbo family origin story.

Tracing African origins.  The first Africans in Virginia arrived from the Kingdom of Ndongo on the ships the White Lion and Treasurer (1619) and the Fortune (1628) after being pirated from Portuguese slave ships. The Portuguese presence in Ndongo dates back to 1484.  The Portuguese attacked the kingdom in 1618 on a hunt to capture Africans to fuel the growing Portuguese slave trade. Cumbo US South Y-DNA surname project participants mostly have African Haplogroups B and E consistent with a family origin in Angola.  A Y-DNA haplogroup is a genetic population group of people who share a common ancestor on their direct paternal line.*

Cumbo US South Y-DNA Participant Summary 

Haplogroup	Count	Surnames
B-M181	8	Cumbee, Cumbaa, Cumbea, Cumbie
E-M2	4	Cumbo, Cumber
R-M269	3	Cumbo, Combo

As the Cumbo family grew in America, so did variation of the name which is represented in surnames participating in the project.

What’s in a name? Emanuel Cumbo’s parents were Emanuel and Joan from Ndongo.  Their first names tie them to Portuguese-influenced Ndongo. Cumbo is a unique sounding name with origins in Africa. It is possibly derived from Kambol, the royal name of Ndongo. Go to google maps and you’ll locate a village in the north of Angola named Cumbo. Search slave trade records and you find hundreds of Cumbos, Combos, Kumbos and Cumbahs from Angola, Cameroon and Congo.

Name	Age	Gender	Ship Name
Cumbo	20	Male	San Antonia Milagroso
Combo	22	Female	Ucas
Combo	13	Male	Graca
Combo	24	Male	Faceirnha
Combo	13	Male	Maria
Combo	21	Male	Malaga of Belouru
Kumbo	7	Male	Laure
Cambo	8	Male	HCMS Princess Charlotte

Representative sample of results from the African Origins Database searching the name Cumbo.  https://legacy.african-origins.org/

The Cumbos in Virginia. Emanuel (father) and Joan were born around 1600 and 1610 in Ndongo. They arrived in Point Comfort, Virginia sometime from 1619 and 1628.  From Point Comfort, they were bound to land owners at Archers Hope Creek in James City County, Virginia.  In 1638 Richard Kemp lists “Emanuel, Negro” among numerous headrights to secure 840 acres of land on Archers Hope Creek in James City County. The next year “Joan, a Negro” is listed among headrights for 1,200 acres to William Davis, Kemp’s neighbor at Archers Hope Creek.

Since Emanuel (father) and Joan arrived with no fixed-term indentured service contracts, they labored as bonded servants, enslaved in practice. As they labored, slavery was rapidly forming in Virginia through custom, court rulings and laws. White landowners misused the headright system which was established in Virginia in 1618 to recruit labor for the colonies. Landowners exploited Africans like Emanuel and Joan as headrights by using them to secure new land holdings over and over without ever having to transfer land patents to them.

Emaunel (father) tried to escape his bondage for freedom.  In 1640 he was serving William Pierce in York County which adjoins James City County. He hatched a plan to escape under the cover of night with 6 white servants.  They all were caught sailing down the Elizabeth River to Norfolk.  Emanuel was whipped, branded and returned bondage.  His dreams of freedom would have to be realized through his son.

The Life of Emanuel Cumbo (son). Emanuel Cumbo was born around 1634 to Emanuel (father) and Joan in James City County. His parents wanted him to have the freedom they were denied. They leveraged relationships with those for whom they labored over many years to petition the Virginia legislature for their son’s freedom. They succeeded. In September 1644 the Virginia House of Burgess ruled the said servant “a Mulata named Manuel ” was by the assembly adjudged no slave but to serve as other Christian servants [indentured servants] do and ordered to serve 21 years.

Why might have Emanuel (son) been described as a mulatto in 1644? Note that this descriptor is an outlier relative to other descriptions of him and his parents. Africans represent a broad spectrum of complexions.  Emanuel and/or Joan could have also been of mixed Portuguese ancestry.

On April 18, 1667, two years after Emanuel Cumbo (son) was freed from his 21 year bondage, he took ownership of  50 acres of land in Archers Hope Creek where his mother and father labored. Cumbo obtains his property from land formerly deeded to William Davis, who had listed Emanuel’s mother Joan among the headrights required to claim it in 1639, and adjoining land owned by Richard Kemp, who listed his father Emanuel as a headright in 1638.  By September 1667 the Virginia Assembly declared baptism does not free enslaved people. Had Emanuel Cumbo’s timeline shifted a few years, perhaps he would not have achieved freedom.  But he did, making him and his descendants free people in America from that point forward.

Cumbo Family Timeline & Locations

• 1619/1628: Africans Emaneul and Joan arrive from Ndongo on the White Lion, Treasurer or Fortune to Point Comfort, VA [A]
• 1638: Patent places Emanuel at Archers Hope Creek in James City, VA [B]
• 1639: Patent places Joan at Archers Hope Creek  in James City near Emanuel; ties her to William Davis [B]
• 1640: Court case places Emanuel in York near James City trying to escape bondage [C]
• 1642: Patent places Emanuel in bondage in York [C]
• 1651: Patent ties Joan and Emanuel (son) together in Northumberland County adjacent to Richard Bushrod and William Smith properties [D]
• 1665: Emanuel Cumbo (son), formerly owned by Thomas Bushrod [Richard’s brother] and William Smith, is freed from bondage
• 1667: Patent grants Emanuel Cumbo (son) 50 acres at Archers Hope Creek, secured by William Davis for Joan’s headright [B]

African Population in Early Virginia

Year	African Population
1619	32
1624	22
1640	150
1649	300
1671	2000

The African population in early Virginia was very small, so references to the same names found in early patent records for similar locations likely reference the same people.

Addressing Alternative Theories. Now that we have presented our Cumbo family origin story we would like to address three alternative theories of Cumbo origin that are in the public domain. 

• Theory #1. Could Emanuel Cumbo be the son of European Hugh Davis and an African woman?  This theory is based on a 1630 resolution sentencing Hugh Davis to be publicly whipped for “lying with a negro”.  It assumes a connection between Hugh Davis and William Davis based on a shared surname to explain why Emanuel ended up with the land formerly owned by William Davis. Here is our counter. Our Cumbo Y-DNA project points to paternal origins in Africa and not Europe.  Also note none of our participants generate Davis matches. Additionally we have established the connection between Emanuel Cumbo and William Davis through patent records.
• Theory #2.  Could Emanuel Cumbo (father) be one of the 1619 “twenty and odd” who were bound to Abraham Piersey?  Here is our counter.  The African Emanuel could have absolutely been one of the twenty and odd, but he was not bound to Piersey.  We know this because the African men listed on Piersey’s plantation were named and Emanuel was not one of them. He could have been one of the 9 unnamed Africans in the 1623 Virginia census. But at this point we do not know for sure.  So all we can really say with certainty is that he is one of the first Africans.
• Theory #3. Is it possible that references to Emanuel (father)  prior to 1667 are of Emanuel Driggers?  The African Emmanuel Driggers was born around 1620 and bound to Francis Pott on his plantation in Magotha Bay, Northampton County, Virginia. We counter that they were two different people and use geography to support this theory.  Emanuel Cumbo (father) and Emanuel Driggers both disembarked at Point Comfort, Virginia.  From there Emaneul Driggers went to Northampton County, Virginia on the Eastern Shore, where he lived his life, Emanuel (father) lived their lives west of the Chesapeake in James City and York County Virginia.

Call to action.  This is a family story of African strength, resilience and agency over bondage, uncovered through Y-DNA test results, early Virginia records and places.  Our Cumbo family research continues through the Cumbo US South Y-DNA project. If you are a male Cumbo, Combo, Cumbee, Cumby, Cumbea, Cumber, or any other surname derivative, please consider joining our Cumbo US South Y-DNA project. Note that African-descended Cumbos identify across all racial designations.  

Learn more about our project here: https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/cumbo-us-south/about.